It is a big city, very chaotic. And, I think a day here was still plenty, but we enjoy that day considerably more than expected.
First stop was the TI office where they were incredibly helpful including finding us our most affordable Switzerland room of our time here (80 Swiss francs with a bath down the hall and no breakfast). Additionally, we bought a ZurichCard which had several benefits - for us primarily the transportation.
We stored our bags in a locker at the train station. Switzerland seems to be the only country that still offers train station lockers, and our theory is that they don't have much fear of terrorist bombings here because they pretty much stay out of everyone's business.
We started our walking tour of the city in heavy rain. It was cold! A particularly memorable moment was entering the Grossmunster (big cathedral) while the organist was practicing. Adding music to history and the grandness of the church was a unique experience. Additionally, instead of stained glass, several windows here were slices of geodes that created an incredibly beautiful window. Photos were not allowed so Ben bought postcards so we would have images of those unqie windows.
After we stopped riverside for a delicious lunch, the sun had come out. Ben's beer had a brewing tale on the bottle that made us both laugh.
We ended our walk at the lake and thanks to our ZurichCard we had a few options to get out on the water. The sky above the city was dark and treacherous looking and moments before getting on the boat (and I mean we were about 20 people from the doorway and in the process of boarding) another downpour started. Happily dry on board, we couldn't see much mountain scenery because of the storm but we enjoyed the water, lake town sightseeing and being somewhere dry (with a warm drink and some Bailey's). An additional highlight was a woman who got off at one of the stops with a huge Wall Drug South Dakota umbrella, she did not appear to be a tourist.
By the time we returned to Zurich the sun was out again. This time we hopped on a very low, glass roofed boat that went up the river. The boat is low so it can pass under bridges. This got us back to the train station where we hopped a smaller train heading for the hills, Uetliberg.
The train went up above the city, and a short walk uphill took us to an awesome viewpoint of Zurich, the lake, and the surrounding area. We also climbed a tower up on the mountain that offered even better views.
We picked up some take-away food (in Europe it is take-away instead of "to go") and found our hotel. A small guesthouse above a restaurant, we have a very basic room, but it's comfortable and clean and we are looking forward to a good sleep before heading to the airport in the morning.
Some final bullets on Switzerland:
- We saw a free standing air pump for bikes city square
- It is rainy in May
- We have been here for several days and I'm still suffering from sticker shock due to how over the top expensive everything is here
- In Zurich people walked up the moving escalator instaed of just standing there
- In Switzerland, if you request $100 from an ATM, you get a one hundred franc bill. So, that's useful.
- It seems nearly everyone here paints their satellite dish to match their house. A dark brown dish against the wood goes almost unnoticed
- Had we researched ahead of time, a Swiss Pass is a good deal, but must be purchased from the US
- We saw no wave runners on any Swiss lakes
- Swiss beer is boring, time to bring in some Colorado brewers (can you believe this came from Ben, not Kori?)
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